Convertible pitch knife apparatus
AssigneeR.A. Jones & Co. Inc.
InventorPaul E. Dieterlen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Rotary knife apparatus used in connection with a pouch form, fill and seal machine capable of handling a substantially wide range of pouch sizes or variations in pouch fills. The apparatus includes major and minor knife hubs cantilevered on respective shafts and driven by a continuous backwrapped chain or timing belt. Rigid knife blades are mounted to interchangeable knife blocks on the major knife hub having varying radial dimensions to accommodate varying pouch chordal distances. The minor knife hub is laterally adjustable relative to the major knife hub along a fixed path to accommodate the substantial changeover.
Claims9
A rotary knife apparatus for a web of filled pouches, comprising:
- first and second parallel rotary shafts, each of said first and second rotary shafts having a drive end and a knife hub support end, said first and second rotary shafts each being supported at two spaced locations along said respective shafts proximate said drive end to thereby cantilever said respective knife hub support ends;
- and
- first and second knife hubs detachably mounted on said respective knife hub support ends of said rotary shafts, each of said knife hubs having a respective plurality of knife blades radially extending therefrom in respective planes parallel to respective axes of rotation of said first and second rotary shafts for cooperating in shear to cut said filled pouches from said web,
- said first and second knife hubs being mountable on and removable from said respective knife hub support ends of said first and second rotary shafts to accommodate changeovers to different pitch knife diameters.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.